THE TURKS YONHIKE I ARABIA

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2920, 4 November 1916, Page 7

THE TURKS YONHIKE I ARABIA

GRANB-SHEREEF EXPLAINS HIS HOSTILITY. (Press Association War Special.) Cairo, July 21. 11l an articlo contributed to the vernacular journal "Al Nirsad" on the revolt of the Grand Shereef, Aly Loutf.v tells of a visit he paid to tho holy places some years ago. The writer says he was admitted to the bureau of the Grand Shereef, and explained that he had been' condemned to six I months' imprisonment by tho Unionists (the Young Turks) at Boy rout for a phrase in his paper. Ho had ap--pealed against the sentence. Tho Shereef said:— "If Turkey remains in tho hands of these Unionists she will not take long to die, for, like rodents, they are gnawing at her vitals, and are working her ruin. They use authority under tho cloak of a love of country, and God knows that they lie. AVhat will you say when I tell you that after my war with tho Iman Yehiah tho Iman informed mo that it was tho Unionist Government that had provided him secretly with arms and ammunition and pushed him on to fight? They had promised him the principality of Mecca and all the Arab country if he would only destroy tho authority of tho Shereefs. In support of this statement the Iman Yehiah sent 'no rifles and. cartridges belonging to the armament of tho Ottoman Empire, and these arc now suspended from the walls of this room. I think only of the future, and I shed tears when 1 think of the stato to which Turkey has been reduced. They consider us Arabs as slaves, as men that can bo disposed of at will. How often have I asked them not to nominate a Turkish vali to Hedjaz, but my protests have been in vain; and how often have . 1 complained of the acts of these 'ftirkish Governors, only to (ind that my protests have but tended to enhance confidence in them?. v "I am only waiting for the day, concluded His Highness, ''when Arabia will bo able to throw oft' the. yoke of

those traitors, when wc shall be restored to our old glory and to our lost rights. I myself shall prepare, if God gives me life, things undreamt of by the. Unionists, and I am certain that God will aid me in tho realisa-

tion of my aspirations—the safeguarding .of tho existence of the Arabs. One of tho valis came hero accom-

pauied by a female friend dressed as a Moslem woman. In her company ho drank wines and spirits. I snon had him out of the country."